When accidents become eurekas—Stumbling into discovery

Sometimes—perhaps more often than you’d think—the most successful discoveries are stumbled upon by accident. A flask left on the burner too long, a forgotten experiment tucked into a lab drawer, a weird result—these have been the fodder for life-changing discoveries.

We recently shared the story of how University of Michigan researchers discovered the ability to print rounded crystals quite by accident, too. And remember the story about new uses for devitrite, the glass industry’s trash?

Watch the short video above from the American Chemical Society’s Reactions series about some of the oops that have changed the world, then tell us—have you ever made an accidentally interesting discovery? Sound out in the comments below, or connect with us on social media to share your story!